How to re-string a floating tremolo

Re-stringing a Floyd Rose/Kahler system…

I want to walk you through how I re-string a floating tremolo system using my trusty 1987` RG 550 Ibanez.  I say re-string the way I do it because, its a little different than most I see doing this.  Most people take all the strings off at once and then start putting the strings back on ect but, I like to take one off at a time.  Believe me, its saves you hours of tuning headaches when your done.  Some people like to take a piece of wood or a nine volt battery and stick it under the end of the tremolo system to relax the strings and then start taking them all off at once, after doing that one time I decided, never again.  So let me walk you through the process and see if we can’t get you back to playing in 45 minutes instead of 4 hours.

The tools needed for the job…

You’ll need new strings, a pair of dykes, needle nose or some type of wire cutters, Allen Wrench also known as ” Hex Key” set, ” I use a nut driver, I’ll show you why as we continue on here, and Pepsi.  Ok, or Coke, Whiskey, Tequila what ever gets you through the day, me, its Pepsi.   First off, find a comfortable spot to work that’s easy access, I like my bench its about waste high and I don’t have to fondle with stuff or stay half bent over while I work.

Lets start by loosening the locking nuts as shown below…

The reason I use a nut driver is I replaced the original locking nut screws with Hex head bolts.  The reason, the original allen wrench style wear out fairly fast so by using these type of bolts instead they last for years, saving one more trauma that we don’t need.

Next, loosing the string with the tuner at the head stock enough to pull the string out.

Now just pull the string back through the locking nut that you loosened earlier, you’ll probably have to back the screws out almost all the way it makes it easier to get the strings out. Now loosen the locked tension screw on the bridge with your allen wrench take the old string coil it up and we’ll put it in the paper string holder the new strings come in.

Take out the new string and depending on which end you started, do the steps in reverse order.  First cut the ball off the new string about half and inch back from the wrap at the ball, make sure you hang on to that small piece we can put it in with the old string.  That keeps the dang thing from falling on the floor and sticking in someones foot… it hurts like hell, been there done that.

Once you have the string in the saddle tighten the tension screw back down, snug but not to hard and feed the the string back through the nut to the tuner.  I usually feed it through the eye and give myself about 6-8 inches of play so there is enough string wrapped around the tuner, keeps it from slipping so badly.

Doing this one string at a time we can tune off the adjacent string and this speeds things up big time.  Tighten the string and tune the string as mentioned before then push the extra string forward as shown here.

Don’t cut them off yet, the strings will slip a little so its best to wait until we have all the strings on to let them stretch out a bit.  So, rinse and repeat the same for all the other strings pressing the extra string down so you can tighten the next string without getting tangled up, you end up looking like this when you get all your strings on.

Now since you were tuning all the strings off the other string before it, you should be roughly in tune, close to what it was before we took the old strings off.  It doesn’t hurt to play for 3-5 minutes and stretch the new string out a little.  Once you do that then loosen the fine tuners out almost all the way, that will give you some room to fine tune and its almost always tuning up.

Now lock down the nut at the head stock.

And get your tuner out now we can fine tune the guitar and we’re almost done.  You might have to unlock the nut once or twice and re-adjust your fine tuners and that’s normal so go ahead and do it if you need.

Once you have the guitar in tune again we can cut the extra string off the ends at the tuners and toss them in the trash.  Make sure you put the ball you cut off in with the old strings those things have killed a ’slow in the head’ cat I had  once from getting stuck in its throat and choking to death… true story haha….  anyway they be bad, I make sure I know where those damn things are when I’m done.

And voila, your finished…  and your back ready to play your guitar in under an hour instead of 4 hours.  Granted there are times you have to take all the strings off for different reasons but, I always say, if you don’t have to then, why do it right?  I hope this might be a help to some, that may have been fighting a floating tremolo system.

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